Apparatus for fixing flexible materials.



PATENTED JUNE 13, 1905.

M. H. RUMPF. v

APPARATUS FOR FIXING FLEXIBLE MATERIALS.

APPLICATION FILED OUT! 27, 1902.

UNITED STATES Patented June 13, 1905.

PATENT OFFICE.

MARTIN HENRI RUMPF, OF PARIS, FRANCE.

APPARATUS FOR FIXING FLEXIBLE MATERIALS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 792,239, dated June 13, 1905.

Application filed October 2'7, 1902. Serial No. 128,990.

To (tZZ- whom it 1720.1 concern:

Be it known that I, MARTIN HENRI RUMPF, whose full postal address is Rue dHauteville 94, Paris, France, have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Apparatus for- Fixing Flexible Materials, of which the following is a specification.

This invention has for its object an improved arrangement for fixing and stretching fabrics or any other flexible materials. v

The arrangement is particularly applicable to the frames of embroidering-machines for fixing and stretching the material and for enabling it to be easily adjusted and moved in said frame, thus rendering it possible for the embroidery to be successively continued over a large area of fabric.

The arrangement will now for the sake of clearness be described with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which Figure 1 shows a number of modifications of a part of the invention in transverse section. Fig. 2 is an elevation of a frame with stretching-rollers; and Fig. 3 is a cross-sec tion, on an enlarged scale, of part of Fig. 2.

The slotted roller 1 (shown in Fig. 1) may be of metal or other suitable material and is intended for fixing or holding the fabric or the like by means of a bar 2. The said roller 1 may also be slotted, as shown in 1 l or in any other manner suitable for the object in view. As may be seen, the slot 3 in the roller or tube 1 or its modifications 1 1 is formed in such a way that when the material to be fixed by means of the bar 2 is inserted therein, together with the bar, and is pulled from the side of the large projection 4 said mate-- rial is retained by the pressure of the bar against the walls of the cavity. On the other hand, when the material is to be released from any given roller or tube, the fabric being first sufficiently loosened, the retaining-bar is revolved on its longitudinal axis so that one edge drops away from contact with the under surface of the large hook-shaped projection 4, while the other edge is allowed to slip up and out of the groove, so as to permit of the bar being removed. The smaller projection opposite to the hook-shaped projection 4 is placed substantially at right angles to the bottom of the groove and in this way ofiers no resistance to the revolution of the bar and the outward turning of the edge normally against said smaller projection. Fig. 2 is an elevation of a frame with four such stretching rollers or tubes 5, 6, 7 and 8 mounted at their ends in supports fixed to the frame and provided with ratchets for retaining them in the desired positions. In this figure a supplementary stretching-roller 9, the use of which will be hereinafter explained, is shown in dotted lines, and 10 and 11 are rollers on which the material which is not being stretched in the frame is wound.

Fig. 3 is a transverse section, on an enlarged scale, of the slotted rollers or tubes 5 7 9 of the frame, the fabric-rollers 10 and 11, the bar 2, and the material 12 to be stretched.

While the device herein described and claimed is capable of use for a variety of purposes, it is particularly intended for securing a fabric to be embroidered in proper position for the operation upon said fabric of any well-known form of embroidering-machine. The construction of the machine for embroidering the fabric is no part of the present invention, and therefore in describing the mode 'of using this fabric-holding device a knowledge of the main features of construction usual in embroidering-machines will be assumed.

In describing the operation of this device I will assume it to be employed in combination with an embroidering-maohine, and on that assumption the description of the preferred mode of use of this device is as follows: When the material included in the space between the rollers 5 and 7 has become sufficiently covered with embroidery to render it desirable to shift the fabric, a supplemental grooved roller 9 and a corresponding securingbar 2 are brought together in parallel relation on opposite sides of the fabric, as shown in Fig. 3, the roller 9 being placed on the same side of the fabric as the roller 5 and parallel thereto. The roller 5 is then turned backward slightly in a direction opposite to that indicated by the small arrow in Fig. 3. The slack in the fabric thus produced is immediately taken up by the bar 2 being forced into the groove of the roller 9, whereby the fabric under the bar 2 is secured to the roller 9 in the manner hitherto described with relation to the rollers 5 and 7. Up to this point it has been assumed that the fabric was prevented from displacement by the needles of the embroidering-machine or in any other desired manner. As soon as the fabric has been secured to the bar 9, however, it is released from all the other bars or rollers, as well as from the needles or other retaining devices in the embroider-ingmachine, and the bar 9 is drawn carefully into the position before occupied by the roller 5, care being taken to preserve the parallel relation of the bars 5 and 9 until the bar 9 is actually substituted in the machine for the bar 5, which latter is removed and is used as a supplementary bar 9 when the fabric is next shifted. After this substitution of the supplementary bar for the bar 5 the fabric is again secured at all the rollers, as heretofore described, and the embroidered material is of course taken up on the roller 10 in proportion as it is shifted. Having thus replaced in the frame the material to be embroidered, said frame is lowered in order that the end of the preceding embroidery, which is situated at the top of the frame, may encounter the needles of the embroidering-machine, thus insuring the accurate registering of the pattern.

The bars 2 may be provided at intervals with pins which by sticking into the material retain the bars in the desired position, thus preventing the material from being displaced by slipping over the bars when it is inserted in the recesses 3 of the rollers.

The arrangement of the improved frame hereinbefore described, with its four slotted rollers 5, 6, 7, and 8, renders it applicable for embroidery from top to bottom, or from right to left, or vice versa, and the dimensions of the material to be embroidered, therefore, are not depending on the size of the frame.

Having now particularly described and ascertained the nature of the said invention and in what manner the same is to be operated, I declare that what I claim is In an apparatus for securing flexible materials, a longitudinally-grooved roller exhibiting in cross-section a larger hook-shaped projection on one side of the groove and a smaller projection forming substantially a right angle with the bottom of the other side of the groove; in combination with a bar for retaining flexible material, said bar being adapted to enter the groove in said roller and to be revolved therein on a longitudinal axis, substantially as described.

In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name, this 16th day of October, 1902, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

MARTIN HENRI RUMPF.

Vl'itnesses:

WAL'rI-IER I-IARTMANN, EDWARD P. MAoLEAN. 

